House Speaker Mike Johnson’s gamble to salvage the $1.15 trillion defense policy bill collapsed Tuesday after the House rejected a procedural rule meant to begin debate on the bill and hold a vote to attach President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority, the SAVE America Act, to the must-pass measure.
The failed vote leaves the National Defense Authorization Act stalled as lawmakers are set to leave Washington for the Independence Day recess, and it underscores Johnson’s tenuous grip on his narrow majority as conservatives pressed for their own strategy on Trump’s voting legislation.The rule failed, 198-224, with 14 Republicans voting against it.
The speaker, who earlier Tuesday said he planned to work to “get everybody to yes” over the coming days, instead will begin the recess early — sending lawmakers home after an unrelated evening vote series.
Johnson tried to placate hardliners by using a maneuver dubbed a “MIRV” — shorthand borrowed from multi-warhead missiles — to package the SAVE Act with the defense bill before sending it to the Senate. But the plan failed to resolve a bitter dispute with conservatives who wanted a standalone vote to join the two bills.
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The SAVE Act would require proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote and mandate photo identification for casting ballots in federal elections. Trump has pushed the Senate to take up the bill, but Republicans have not had the votes to pass it.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) dismissed Johnson’s plan as a “procedural head fake” and warned ahead of the vote that she and other conservatives wanted the SAVE Act “baked” into the text of the NDAA itself.
“I’m saying I will vote for the rule if you allow my amendment for voter ID plus proof of citizenship to be placed into the text of the NDAA,” she said after the vote failed. “They’re saying they won’t, so you saw what happened on the floor.”
The House Democratic leader indicated his caucus had no interest in rescuing Republicans.
“House Republicans have unfortunately made the National Defense Authorization Act highly partisan in ways that are irresponsible when it comes to providing for the national security of the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told NOTUS.
Democrats had previously dismissed Johnson’s maneuver and said the final NDAA, after the House and Senate reconcile their versions, would exclude the elections bill.
“There is a zero percent chance the SAVE Act ends up in the NDAA,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, calling the push a “shell game.”
The rule’s failure also delays votes on more than 300 amendments approved Monday, including on Ukraine security aid and targeting transgender troops and military family members.
House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) had urged the House to move ahead, arguing that the bill was needed to rebuild the defense industrial base and deter China.
“We must take action to address these problems before American deterrence erodes any further,” he told the House Rules Committee. “We are giving the industry the certainty it needs to invest, expand and produce faster.”But the defense bill had already become entangled in broader fights over defense spending and the Iran war.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the Armed Services panel’s top Democrat, said the legislation addresses real global threats, but he argued it’s part of an irresponsible Republican spending plan that includes $350 billion through a party-line reconciliation bill and $80 billion tied to military operations against Iran.
“We cannot afford a $1.6 trillion defense budget,” Smith said. “Ukraine has developed very cheap technologies that has enabled them to stop in its tracks a vastly larger military. We need to develop that instead of thinking we can buy absolutely everything.”
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